Hardly anything runs in our society today without microchips.
They are the heart of cell phones, computers, cars.
A chip is made up of transistors: tiny switches
10,000 times smaller than a human hair that control the flow of electrons through a circuit.
Billions of transistors are packed into an area smaller than a fingernail.
Microchips are one of humankind’s most remarkable achievements.
And it wouldn’t be possible to make the
world’s most sophisticated chips without the German company ZEISS.
In a previous video, I talked about how the Dutch firm ASML is the only company in the
world that builds the machines that create the circuitry for the most advanced chips.
These machines wouldn’t be able to operate without ZEISS mirrors inside of them.
These are not your average mirrors.
They’re a complex optical system that miniaturizes the
structure of a chip printed on a silicon wafer.
Light is projected through a blueprint of the pattern that will be printed.
ZEISS optics focus the pattern onto the wafer,
which has already been coated with a light-sensitive chemical.
It shrinks the pattern down to the nanometer level. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter!
In the end, the wafer is cut into small pieces of microchips.
While ASML’s less advanced chipmaking machines use lenses to focus light,
lenses won’t work for its most advanced lithography machines because these
machines use Extreme Ultraviolet light, which lenses would absorb.
EUV is a shorter wavelength of light than that used by conventional chip-making machines.
EUV light can help pack more transistors onto a chip, making the chip more powerful.
Since Zeiss cannot use lenses for the most advanced machines, it uses mirrors.
A series of ultra-reflective curved mirrors guide the light in a vacuum chamber.
The mirrors need to be extremely flat because even the smallest irregularity leads to imaging errors.
We’re not talking about your typical level of smoothness.
They are hyper smooth.
If you were to enlarge the mirror to the size of Germany, then the tallest
mountain would be less than 1 mm high! ZEISS makes the flattest mirrors on earth.
They are held in a position as precisely as possible during the exposure process.
They are so stable that if a ZEISS mirror were to redirect a laser beam
and aim it at the moon, it would be able to hit a ping pong ball on its surface!
ASML knows just how crucial ZEISS is to its entire operation.
It’s no wonder that in 2016, ASML bought a billion-euro stake in a subsidiary
of Zeiss, Carl Zeiss SMT, purchasing 24.9% of the shares of Carl Zeiss SMT.
ZEISS and ASML pretty much have no rivals.
Every one of the most advanced chips on Earth has passed through their system.
They supply Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company that produces over 90% of the world’s
most advanced chips. TSMC makes 5 nm chips and is striving to make even smaller 3 nm ones.
The strategic partnership between Zeiss and ASML means the barrier to entry for
potential competitors is exceedingly high.
Other manufacturers could try to build their own EUV lithography machines.
However, if China does want to build a machine that could rival Zeiss and ASML’s,
analysts believe it would take at least 10 years for them to do so.
Trouble is, China cannot access the most advanced equipment from Zeiss and ASML right now.
Because the Trump administration pressed ASML hard
to block sales of its most advanced EUV lithography machines to China.
And the Biden administration has broadened chip restrictions against
Beijing which I discussed in a previous video that I’ll link in my description.
Since ZEISS was founded by German entrepreneur Carl Zeiss in the mid-1800s,
it has since grown to secure THE advantage in optics on the world stage.
Yet it’s not sitting comfortably.
ZEISS is already working on next-generation optics to by increasing the numerical aperture.
The numerical aperture is a measure of how much light the optical system can collect and focus.
The increase in the numerical aperture will significantly improve the resolution.
Improving the resolution will increase the number
of transistors that can be packed onto the chip, making it even more powerful.
And as our future moves toward autonomous driving,
artificial intelligence, and 5G and beyond - you can bet there will be demand for ever
more powerful processors and the machines that make them.
Building the world’s most powerful lenses and mirrors
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Thanks for watching. For Newsthink, I’m Cindy Pom.